Your LinkedIn profile is your face to the business world. When recruiters, employers, or people you meet at networking events visit your LinkedIn profile they are looking for some insight into who you are as well as your professional experience. In other words, why you do what you do, not just what you do.
If key elements of your profile are missing or barely there, it can hurt your chances of finding a new job. In episode you'll learn how to make sure 5 essential sections are working effectively for you.
#1 Head shot - Many people don't include a head shot because they worry about discrimination. But not having one makes people wonder why. They think you're hiding something.
#2 Background photo - A lot of people don't bother to put up a background photo. But not having one makes your profile, and by extension you, look out of touch.
#3 Headline - LinkedIn calls the Headline a headline for a reason. Don't just use the default headline, your job and title, use LinkedIn's headline sell yourself.
#4 About - Don't waste this space selling your employer or fill it with a boring biography. Use it to tell your career story.
#5 Professional Experience - If a recruiter stumbles on your LinkedIn profile, don't think job titles and employer names are going to sell him or her. They want to see what you can do. It's also a place to add some personality
📌 NEW Podcast: Content Marketing School.
Thank you for listening, I hope you found this episode insightful and relevant. If you're a coach, consultant, or entrepreneur, or just want to dive more deeply into content marketing. I hope you'll join me on my new podcast, Content Marketing School.
Available on your favorite podcast platform.
(Previously recorded, Live Show)
Follow Black Dog Marketing Strategies on social media
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@blackdogmarketingstrategies
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annetterichmond/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@annetteadvises
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annetteadvises/
Visit our website https://blackdogmarketingstrategies.com/
Annette (00:05):
[Inaudible]
Annette (00:05):
Hi, welcome to the smarter career moves podcast. I'm an at Richmond executive resume writer in principal of career intelligence resume writing career services. Let's get onto the show.
Annette (00:31):
Hi, I'm a net Richmond, and I'm here today to talk to you a little bit about your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is an important part of your job search toolbox, and you need to make sure that it's working effectively for you. The five sections I'm going to go over are your headshot or profile photo, your LinkedIn background photo, the about section, your professional experience section and also your headline. So the first section is your profile picture. And people often tell me they don't want to put up a picture because they're afraid that people who find their profile are going to think that they're too old or too young or too whatever, and it's going to work against them. But the truth is as a recruiter, I can tell you that when you don't have a photo, it raises red flags. People wonder immediately why you don't have a photo.
Annette (01:27):
So while a professionally taken photo is great to have, it's really not essential. You can have a friend or a family member take that photo for you. Just make sure it's a clear shot of you professionally attired preferably smiling. And you might want to also run it through photofeeler, which is a site I recommend to the clients I work with. And my friends and I've used it myself and it quickly. And inexpensively gives you the impressions that strangers have when they look at your photo based on a certain criteria. So always a good idea to see what strangers think of it because your friends may think it's a great photo, but you know, they know you. The second area is the background photo. The generic blue background that LinkedIn has is something that you don't want to have on your profile.
Annette (02:26):
It makes you look outdated. It makes you look generic. It makes you look like you're just not savvy enough to put a photo up there. So it's very easy. You can replace it with a stock photo. You can buy them for as little as a dollar online. You may want to put in a photo that you've taken, or if you want to be a little bit more custom, you might want to use Canva. It's what I use to create a background images for my client. Again relatively inexpensive and, and fairly easy to use. The third area is the headline. Now LinkedIn calls a headline, a headline for a reason. You don't want to have, the default headline that comes with your LinkedIn profile, which is your title at your current employer. You want to use that to really sell yourself because it's one of the first areas that anyone sees.
Annette (03:27):
If you come up in a recruiter search or an employer search. So you want to use that section and have a few skills your few of your core skills your target title, and perhaps a little blurb about what you do. It might be creating a culture of excellence. It might be that you create that Renegade or revenue generating solutions or client-based investment strategies. So it's just something that tells a little bit about you. And it's an opportunity to sell yourself just as with a resume. You want to use all of the real estate on your LinkedIn profile to make it work as best as you can for you. Also one other thing about the headline, although LinkedIn specifies only 120 characters if you use the app on your iPhone, you can add a few more characters to that. I'm sorry. It doesn't work on, on Android phones.
Annette (04:36):
The next section is the about section. Now again, they call it about for a reason forget about the bios, the third person bio's that I see on so many LinkedIn profiles and they really don't talk anything about you. Also you don't want to spend a time in your LinkedIn profile section the about section, talking about your company. You want to use that to tell your story. So you might talk about what drew you to the industry. Maybe you are working in healthcare because you felt the drive to help your community. Maybe you chose advertising because you liked that fast paced environment. You know, there can be a number of reasons and what it does is it talks about you and what drives you. You may want to also talk about how your career has progressed, maybe things that you've learned over the years.
Annette (05:36):
Again, it's all about telling your story because your story is what is going to make people remember you from your profile. One other thing is make sure that you include your email address in your about section make it easy for people to contact you. If you're employed. You can still do that. Just use an innocuous phrase, like I'm always open to connect with clients and colleagues and potential clients. Just something that fits with your title and your industry. The final section for today is the professional experience section. Of course, the main focus for each position is going to be what you've done there really highlighting and focusing on your achievements, the impact you've had on your employer. But you can also add a line about, you know, why you loved working in that position, or if that's not the case, you might talk about a one or two things that were your proudest accomplishments. Something that just adds a little personality and again, you know, provide some insight into who you are because a resume is a little more formal and LinkedIn is the place to really, really tell your story. So that's it for me today, go to your LinkedIn profile and make some changes and make it more searchable and more attractive and more memorable to those who read it.
Annette (07:14):
[Inaudible]
Annette (07:15):
Thank you for joining us for the smarter
Annette (07:17):
career moves podcast. Hope you enjoy today's show if you did subscribe. Thank you. [inaudible].